Saturday, August 2, 2008

A hard day's work

The house was fairly presentable for the party today, thank goodness. Every time the house looks this nice, I hope to keep it this way. But, inevitably, health problems get out of hand, and it all falls apart again.

I'm so cheerful today!

It was a crazy, wild, noisy party. The kids were sent home, the grandparents are gone, our own little ones (we didn't successfully give any away) are in bed. I'm beat. What do I do?

Purge the "important papers" box, of course. ??!!

It all started like this. I was lounging on the couch, watching Digital play a word game. I couldn't quite see the letters, which meant I was entirely unhelpful when I yelled, "QUAKE!" The E was actually a K. I've been thinking about getting new glasses, but I need to find my prescription first. (This is where Digital reminds me that I could just go... get a check-up?) The Rx might be in the important papers box.

One hour later, I have sorted through the whole thing. I did not find my Rx. I did find...

*old sermon notes
*user manuals to VCRs that are long gone
*energy guide and receipt for our washer/dryer
*insurance packets from our first house/rental
*student welcome packet for Digital's semester of grad school


Lots of other interesting things, too. Some that were meant to be there.

I'll take a stab at the focus challenge, although there's probably a new one for August.
C- credit cards, long expired
L- life insurance quote
U- university mail
T-
T-
E- energy rating for the clothes washer
R- receipts for computer memory

No T, yet.

I actually counted the pile tonight. The number is a bit skewed, I think, because I took things out of the envelopes as I was sorting. This means that it got counted separately as I finished up. I'm okay with that.

The final total?

105.

Thank you, thankyouverymuch.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Bummed

I'm feeling pretty down today, and my go-to ear is a bit stressed, himself.
Dancing Queen's 6th birthday is tomorrow. We have at least three kids coming for a party.

The house, no surprise, is a mess. It's 10am, I've eaten breakfast, showered, and addressed several crises. I have a big list of things to do, and I feel like there's no possible way to get it done. It's an easy enough list, with basic stuff on it- vacuum, do the dishes... things that I'd be doing, anyway.

But when the baby pushes the gate down and interrupts your shower, and when you find the litter box in the middle of the almost-clean room, it's discouraging.

I have to start somewhere, of course. I think things will turn around soon. I just need to get going. I'm starting with the sweeping.

Bonus, there's a lot of throwing-away going on this week. Yesterday, I threw away lots of coupons from the counter (some expired in April!) and a whole 13 gallon bag of stuff from the basement.

Earlier this week, I sorted the pile on the dresser. You know when things have been sitting there for over a year, you likely don't need them. :-P Well, we did need some of it, like the very important document I found, but a large portion of it is gone now.

I'm counting 55 toward those purges. I've also dropped the day count. It's just not working for me.

The kryptonite seems to be the stuff that's not trash, but turns into trash by use. How do you tackle that?